The manufacture of advanced semiconductor devices entails the integration and sequencing of many unit processing steps, with potential new material and process developments. The precise sequencing and integration of the unit processing steps allows the formation of functional devices meeting desired performance metrics such as power efficiency, signal propagation, and reliability.
As part of the discovery, optimization and qualification of each unit process, it is desirable to i) test different materials, ii) test different processing conditions within each unit process module, iii) test different sequencing and integration of processing modules within an integrated processing tool, iv) test different sequencing of processing tools in executing different process sequence integration flows, and combinations thereof in the manufacture of devices such as integrated circuits. In particular, there is a need to be able to test i) more than one material, ii) more than one processing condition, iii) more than one sequence of processing conditions, iv) more than one process sequence integration flow, and combinations thereof, collectively known as “combinatorial process sequence integration”, on a single monolithic substrate without the need of consuming the equivalent number of monolithic substrates per material(s), processing condition(s), sequence(s) of processing conditions, sequence(s) of processes, and combinations thereof. This can greatly improve both the speed and reduce the costs associated with the discovery, implementation, optimization, and qualification of material(s), process(es), and process integration sequence(s) required for manufacturing.
HPC processing techniques have been used in wet chemical processing such as etching and cleaning. HPC processing techniques have also been used in deposition processes such as physical vapor deposition (PVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD), and chemical vapor deposition (CVD).
In standard HPC systems, chemical wastes at various concentrations and pH from multiple site isolated reactors are discharged into waste tanks. Safety hazard can exist, for example, if a waste tank is already filled with strong acids, discharging water into it could cause the temperature of the solution to rise above 100 C due an exothermic reaction between water and acid. In contrast, it is safer to introduce acid into water, since the acid will be diluted with a greater volume of water, providing a higher heat capacity, to absorb the heat of dilution. In addition, since some concentrated acids, such as 97% H2SO4, are viscous and dense, they could phase separate within the waste tank and become difficult to remove or pump out. Therefore there is a need for smart and effective waste effluent management for HPC chemistry development tools.